Getting Familiar With SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, Cloud Computing And More

Written by

James Davis

Written by James Davis

Senior Technical Writer at United Thinkers

Author of the Paylosophy blog, a veteran writer, and a stock analyst with extensive knowledge and experience in the financial services industry that allows me to cover the latest payment industry news, developments, and insights. Read more

Reviewed by

Katherine Pensatori

Reviewed by Katherine Pensatori

Product Specialist at United Thinkers

Product specialist with more than 10 years of experience in the Payment Processing Industry. I help payment facilitators and PSPs solve their various payment processing issues. Read more

Abbreviations and terms abound when you’re dealing with cloud computing and payment processing. When people talk about cloud-computing platform, they often have different purposes in mind. This means that the entire IT industry is transforming from a physical towards a virtual world. With a brief introduction, you can understand cloud computing terms like DevOps, IaaS, PaaS, SaaS and more.

What Is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing is simple today’s way to store and process data by remote servers. That means a cloud server is a computer server that works just like one in your basement or IT room.

What about DevOps? When development and operations work together, that involves the culture or practice of DevOps. It’s just another way to talk about working together.

SaaS vs PaaS vs IaaS: What’s The Difference

Here are some other terms you may see or hear about payment processing software and other software products and services:

• Software as a service or SaaS is the use of the web to deliver software applications by third parties. The UniPay gateway is a cloud computing solution for SaaS. So are Google Apps, Salesforce, Concur and more.
• Platform as a service or PaaS provides software with cloud components or a framework upon which a company’s own team can create customizable applications. The UniPay gateway is completely open-source. This means your company’s team can change and build upon it, making it work like a PaaS framework. Using a PaaS can help you get a solution in place quicker than starting from scratch.
• Infrastructure as a service or IaaS includes cloud infrastructure services for accessing, managing, and monitoring computing, storing, and networking resources. Instead of buying a lot of hardware, your company can choose IaaS as the hardware upon which the UniPay gateway operates. You buy the service you need, just like you may buy electricity but don’t have your own generating plant. Amazon Web Services is today’s most widely used IaaS offering.

Do you understand more now? Remember, when you work with the commercial open source UniPay gateway, we help you understand the terms. Our cloud computing payment processing option could make sense for your company. Let us help you decide.